March 29, 2012

"The year was 1992 and I was 17 years old," reports Ronald. "My mother lived in South Bend, Indiana and my father lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I had made this trip a half dozen times by myself in the past. I always chose to drive at night because there was less traffic, less road construction, too.

"This particular night, I was driving from my mother's to my father's. I had called him on the phone just as I left, as always. When I arrived at his house he had a look of disbelief on his face and said, 'What are you doing here?' Until then I had not noticed that I had made the 370 mile trip in less than 4 hours. I drove an old Pontiac four-door that was not capable of the well over 100 mph that would have been required for that time. Also, I do not remember stopping to get gas, and that car would not make that trip on less than 1½ tanks of gas. Needless to say, I have always been puzzled by this event."

These stories of apparent time slips always are puzzling, Ronald. According to Google Maps directions, the trip should have taken you about 6½ to 7 hours -- and that's without stopping for gas, food, and bio breaks. Seems impossible, and if your start and arrival times are accurate, it's hard to find an explanation.

But here are more weird stories of time slips:

Missing Time and Out of Placeby Cher

"I was leaving my driveway to drive one mile to town. There were woods and few houses along the way. I had just pulled out and there was a thick fog rolling in. Very creepy at night. I had only gone a half a block at most, and very slowly, when I saw a very bright light through the fog. This was really strange since there was nothing near my house.

As I drove closer, I saw a Phillips 66 gas station that wasn't there the day before. I pulled into it in shock, and a man came out. I asked him how a gas station could have been built so fast and he looked at me strangely. He said it had been there for eight years!

I asked him where I was and when he told me, I began to shake uncontrollably. I was 300miles from home! I looked at the clock and I had left my driveway only two minutes before! It took all night to drive home and I shook most of the way!"

Blip in Time by Glenn

"This incident happened to me when I was a university student in Nova Scotia, Canada in about 1991. I decided to take the express bus to my home town one night to visit my parents for the weekend. I sat at the back of the bus and there was nobody around me, but there was a family sitting behind the driver in the front. The bus ride was uneventful until we came close to my parents home town.

I was looking out the window and I looked at the Michelin tire factory as we went by it going uphill. When the bus reached the top of the hill, I got a strange feeling and for some unknown reason I started to imagine many people on the bus laughing at me!

Right then there was a blip in reality and the bus was suddenly about a mile back on the highway! I then had the experience of watching the bus drive by the tire factory again! This kind of scared me and I noticed that the family sitting in the front, who were talking loudly before, were now dead quiet.

I approached the bus driver when we stopped and told him what I thought happened. He looked really nervous and he said something like, "Things like that happen." It was like a distortion in time and space."

I'd like to thank you for visiting the playhouse and I hope you'll join me for part two, as I investigate the mysterious phenomena of time slips!